Total Pageviews

Greetings!

Tuesday, 6 June 2017

Seconds out...first two rounds, of 15. In the Blue corner (US invaders):

On the right flank, a unit of US Regulars, an artillery battery, and a militia regiment. Their objective is to make the town too hot for the British-Canadian forces. After more pondering, I decided to reduce the points value of this militia unit to 10, as opposed to the 15 of 'One Hour' rules.

On the left, the US commander has put in his two best regiments of foot. Their objective is to take the hill.

Meanwhile, the centre is taken by this unit of US militia. Unlike the other regiment of militia, this has better morale and training (as represented by the fact that some of the figures are in uniform), and so has an initial points value of 12. Their task is to secure the woodlands. Under 'One Hour' rules, only 'skirmishers' can enter woodland, so the militia of both sides have been classed thus. Interestingly, the scenario set-up has this large woodland separating the two objectives of town and hill. Added to the fact that the defending force must keep two units within 12" of each objective, this introduces certain constraints.

In the Red (British-Canadian) corner, a militia unit rapidly advances down the turnpike into the town, with our Provincial cavalryman hero scouting ahead:

Skirting the edge of the town is a unit of Provincials and one of Regulars:

While another unit of Regulars takes to the hill:

and militiamen infiltrate the wood:

The scene is set; here, an overall view of the town:

Out in the fresh air, we have been having stormy weather in Old England, with high winds, heavy rain, and temperatures down to 10oC. In my tiny greenhouse, courgette seedlings stand ready for better weather and deployment to the allotment plot:

Sunday, 4 June 2017

Short of a sixth unit for the next planned 'One Hour' game, I dug out some already undercoated 'Emhar' 'British Infantry, Peninsular War 1807-14'. These are very nice figures indeed, and a better hand with the paint brush could make a really fine job of them, whether as our noble lads (Irish - given the Peninsular ?) , or as Yankees:

While painting up the Americans, I came across this fellow:

He is a true veteran, and first graced my tabletop (the same table he is on here) sometime back in the early 1970s, sporting an even worse paint job, in gloss blues and greys. Of course, he is a figure from the Airfix Waterloo RHA set. After years spent knocking around in an old sweet tin, then the last few years in a makeshift sand-pit, his loyalty has been rewarded. Now in the uniform of a Provincial cavalry regiment, he, too, will join the 1812 'One Hour'.

While doing this emergency painting, I had occasional ponders about the planned 'One Hour'. The core rules for all the periods covered are pretty constant, as one would expect, and therein lies the beauty of the system. However, thinking about 1812 and the initial invasions of Canada/British North America, I decided that assigning 15 points to every unit would be just too ahistorical. Militias played an important part on both sides. However, whereas the militias from Upper and Lower Canada performed well, the US militias (with some exceptions) performed very poorly indeed. The answer is, I think, to reduce their starting points value to 12, or even 10. Similarly, although the scenario has six units per side, the British-Canadian forces were very much outnumbered at the start of the war, so I think one unit needs to go.

Recently, the crazed fuckwits that are the Islamists have been redoubling their murder efforts - in Egypt (against Christians), in the Philippines, in Kabul, in Syria, and, of course, in my homeland. I hope the UK government ACTS.

Thursday, 1 June 2017

From Neil Thomas' One-Hour Wargames. This time, it's going to be a 'Horse & Musket' set-up, specifically the War of 1812 in 20mm. First deployment by the 'Red' force, i.e., British and Canadian. The 3'x3' playing area incorporates, a town, road, wood, and hill:

The defending force has to hold both the hill and the town, and must deploy 3 units within 12" of the hill, and 3 within 12" of the town. Below:

the newly mobilised militia move up towards the town, while, below:

a Provincial regiment, and British Army regulars also move into position.

Quotation of the moment

'In a sense, nothing in life is planned - or everything is - because in the dance every step is ultimately the corollary of the step before; the consequence of being the kind of person one chances to be.'

Anthony Powell, The Acceptance World (A Dance to the Music of Time), 1955.

Cpt. Front

About Me

New Men-At-Arms

Not out until February 2018, but order your copy early - you know it makes sense!

NOW IN PAPERBACK!!!

The Home Guard - 'This is likely to be the standard reference book on the subject for many years to come'; Bernard Lowry, Fortress Study Group.

A Vanished Ideology Essays on the Jewish Communist Movement in the English-Speaking World

Yiddish-speaking, English-speaking, Jews in the Communist movement. With a chapter on British Jews, ethnicity and class, by Al Front.

When Jews had a place on the Left.

The Labour Party is sunk in a mess of anti-Semitism, but it was not always thus:

Alf R. Ont on the wireless

Click on the image and scroll to 01:05:23 for the dulcet tones of Mr Ont, talking about women in the Home Guard.

Women in the Home Guard

From The Conversation, 5th February, 2016. Active, patriotic British women to the fore...

NEW BIOGRAPHY of 'FLYING' FAY TAYLOUR

277 pages of thrills and spills. 'Fanatical Fay Taylour', the greatest woman motor sports champion yet. A speed fiend on race tracks across the world, and a political activist who was banned from the USA, and interned in the UK. Member of the ultra-right underground in 1940s London and Dublin, later an Irish republican and supporter of Castro. Click image for a FREE ,yes, FREE, Pdf version provided by the University of Warwick.

Evolution and change in politics

A review of a new history of what was once a notable element of political allegiance among the Jewish diaspora. (Clink on the image for free link).

Germany calling...

The woman who recruited 'Lord Haw Haw' to the Berlin wireless. Socialist, Bolshevik, National Socialist, enemy broadcaster. (From The Historian 119; click on image for Pdf)

BBC Radio 4: Red Clydeside, Decoy Defences and Invasion panic

More Radio 4 'Making History' rambling - from 20th November 2012 (click on the image for link)

'The Land of My Dreams'

British Great War literary combatants and their writing about the war and home. A Pdf of an article from Cultural & Social History, vol. 8, no: 2, June 2011. (Click on image for link).

British Jews & the Communist Party of Great Britain

More reading for the VBCW enthusiast, not to mention the discerning reader (click on image for link). From Socialist History, vol.12, no: 41, September 2012

BBC Radio 4: Speed, women, and fascism

Listen to my dulcet tones, talking about 'Flying' Fay Taylour on BBC Radio 4's Making History (click on the image for link)

'Fay Taylour: a dangerous woman in sport and politics'

A must for the VBCW gamer - the most successful woman motor sport ace ever and a fascist. Click on image for journal link, an open access Pdf will eventually be available.

The Armourer magazine, March/April 2012

The true daughters of Britannia who joined the Home Guard

Political internment without trial, 1940 style

Fascists, nazis, and the IRA interned. Click on image for back issue of Britain At War, issue 46, Feb 2011

George Blake, literary Scot in the Great War

The Great War fiction of the veteran, George Blake - from Cencrastus no:67. Out of print, but I can send a photocopy, if you wish.

For the VBCW war gamer

In History Scotland, March/April 2011; click on image for free Pdf.

Fifth Column panic!

Buy a back issue - all that is left

The incomparable generation of 1914

from The Historian no:110, Summer 2011, magazine of The Historical Association; click on image for Pdf.

BBC Radio 4: Stand By the King!

Listen to my words of historical wisdom about the BUF in Norfolk on Radio 4's 'Making History'. Click on image for link.

One I did earlier...

Musso and the RSI

Fascism in Scotland

From the Scottish Historical Review, volume 87 (2) 2008 (click on the image for Pdf link)

Another Home Guard one...

A 50 page booklet, now out of print, but available as a pdf from Warwick University - click on the image for the link.